Challenges for love
by htffan951
Summary: Death, an unstable force that brings misery and sorrow to everyone. It is then, that we mourn our loss and try to live with the void that our loved ones once filled in our hearts. There is however the select few that would do anything in their power to get back the ones they love most, Spyro being one of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone here is a new story that I wanted to write. Now don't any of you worry I will still be writing chapter for Mistreated, but my co-author has started school so he cant work on the chapters as often. Now I don't blame him for this as school always comes first. Now then for those who want me to work on my story "The Return" I will still be working on it. I will be working on both this story and that story. Every two chapters I will switch to the other story and work on it. Basically after I post chapter 2 for this story I will work on two more chapters for "The Return" and then after I finish 2 chapters for that story I will switch back to this one. Now then I do hope that you all enjoy this new story.**

Victory- an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle. Triumph- a great victory or achievement. Success- the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. It doesn't matter what you call it, it's all the all same, especially in the eyes of Spyro, the current purple dragon, bringer of the new age of peace. He had accomplished many things in his short life so far, from freeing Cynder from her bindings, to defeating Gaul the king of the apes, as well as the final general in Malefor's army. Then there was Malefor himself.

What had to be the most difficult battle in his life, Spyro, along with the help of his friend Cynder, was able to take down the evil dragon. Even though the world was falling apart, thanks to some of the actions that Malefor has done, Spyro managed to use his powers to seal the world back together.

It was when Spyro was fixing the worlds when he heard Cynder say the three magic words that he had wish to hear, ever since they left Warfang to confront Malefor. Though chained together, Spyro felt like he had grown closer to her, to the point where he started to admire her beauty, her feelings, her actions, and every single movement she made, just the mere touch of her was all that he could wish for, but what he admired the most was her eyes.

The way they shined like the beautiful emerald pearls that they are when he looked into them, made Spyro's heart flutter. To Spyro, Cynder's eyes are like an open book when he sees them, as he could see all of the sadness, the misery, and the rough times that she went through in the past. It only made him the more joyful knowing that he was the one who saved her three years ago. But that was not what he always saw in her eyes. He also could see anger, hatred for those who imprisoned her along with every single other emotion. But still Cynder was not one to brood over the past for too long, if not for the encouraging words from Spyro that is, that drove her to forgive herself.

No matter how horrible the things she had done, when she was known as the Terror of the skies, he could never bring himself to hate her, even when the thought of her possibly killing his actual parents, he still couldn't bring himself to spite her.

Even after the war ended, the two dragons couldn't be separated, the love for one another stronger then the chain that held them together during the war. They did everything together, from merely walking around Warfang, to keeping the other company when the other got sick. Then one day when they were enjoying a night out, it finally happened.

There they were sitting under a large oak tree, looking into the night sky.

"It's beautiful isn't it Spyro?" Cynder asked, her gazed focused at the tiny dots in the sky.

"Yea it really is," replied Spyro, though he couldn't help but steal glances at Cynder every now and then.

The two sat there in silence, but while Cynder was mostly just star gazing, Spyro was deep in thought. His heart began to race, and he grew nervous, as he tried to come up with the words for how he feels for Cynder, and for what he wishes for.

"C-C-Cynder," stuttered Spyro.

"What is it Spyro?" Cynder said sweetly, as she turned her gaze to the dragon next to her.

"W-well you s-see, um… I was w-wondering… it's just that..." stuttered Spyro. "Oh never mind, forget I said anything," he said cursing to himself in his head, as he looked away from Cynder, to ashamed of himself to even look at her.

Cynder sat there confused, not sure what Spyro was trying to say. Moving closer to Spyro, she licked the side of his cheek. Feeling this he looked at her, and saw the worry that was in her eyes.

"What's wrong Spyro, you know you can tell me anything,"

Spyro started to grow nervous once more, until he looked into her eyes. In them, like before, was the concern for the one she loves the most, but Spyro could see beyond that, and saw pure love that was driving her concern. He started to gain confidence as he looked into those magical green eyes of hers.

He took a deep breath and said, "Cynder, you are the most beautiful, most caring, just all around amazing dragoness I have ever seen. Your mere voice is what drives me every day to be the best that I can,"

Cynder couldn't help but blush as she heard these words.

"Cynder I love you, with my heart and soul, and I could never ask for anyone else more perfect then you. Cynder… will you marry me?" It was then that Spyro pulled out from behind his wings, a large emerald amulet, and held it out to her. Cynder couldn't help but stare at this magnificent gem as it was handed to her. It felt so smooth in her grasp, and she then found the resemblance between the green colored amulet and her own emerald eyes. As she moved it around to get a clear look at it she noticed it shimmered through the moon light. She then looked back to Spyro, and opened her mouth, but a knot formed in her mouth. Cynder sat there, her mouth open and tears forming in her eyes.

"Spyro… this is… wow," said Cynder with much difficulty as more tears began to form.

"So… what do you think?" Spyro asked growing nervous.

"Spyro… I… I would love to marry you," and just like a dam bursting, streams of tears of joy ran down Cynder's muzzle. Just then all of Spyro's worry was out the window, and was replaced with pure joy. Quickly Spyro began to nuzzle, and hugged Cynder, never wanting to let her go.

The next thing Spyro knew he was just about to marry Cynder, and in front of everyone he knew and loved minus Ignitus of course. There he stood in front of two wooden doors, waiting for his queue to walk through. He was growing nervous once more, and he walked around a little bit to remove some of the nervous energy. He then looked into a mirror that was sitting near the door. He checked every part of him, including the golden armor that he wore for the occasion, making sure that every part of him was as clean as it could be. Just then he heard his queue and as he opened the doors the world went white.

The ceremony when by quickly almost like a dream, and soon Spyro and Cynder found themselves alone in their home. The next thing Spyro knew, he found Cynder and himself, sitting in front of a single red egg. Spyro felt both pride and joy as he knew it had to belong to him.

Then suddenly the egg began to crack. Spyro almost jumped for joy as he saw that he was about to be a father. Soon a tiny red snout pocked through the crack, only to return to the egg once again. A tiny thumping sound could be heard coming from the egg, as the child with in was batting at the light at shown through the hole. Soon it created a bigger hole, and the child became curious.

Soon it broke out of the egg, and was revealed to Spyro and Cynder. It shut its eyes as it was trying to adjust to the light. Through barley open eyes it say both Spyro and Cynder before him. It chirped at the sight of them, and its tail began to wag slightly in excitement knowing that they were its mother and father. Cynder picked him up and after checking its gender, they found out it was a boy.

"What should we name him?" asked Spyro excitedly.

"How about Ash?" suggested Cynder, also showing much excitement.

"Ash… I love it," said Spyro as he peered down at his son, with a smile on his face, happy to be a father.

The next thing Spyro knew, both Cynder and himself were adults, and were sitting a very familiar room, the very same room that they were married in.

"I can't believe that this is actually happening," said Spyro with joy.

"I know I can't believe it myself. It's almost like a dream," said Cynder just before the doors opened and out walked Ash, wearing the same golden armor his father wore when he married Cynder.

Time seem to fly once again for Spyro as many years later, Spyro and Cynder had grown very old; however they both could say that they had happy lives. They saw many things in there time, from the birth of their grandchildren to them also getting married as well. It was all a magical sight to see, and they were glad to see it all happen.

The two were just lying in bed, just about to fall asleep, but before they did thy just looked into one another's eyes, a smile on both of them. Just as their bodies grew heavy, and there heart beat shorten, Spyro nuzzled Cynder one last time before they both fell into the eternal sleep.

* * *

Just then Spyro eyes quickly opened as he awoke from his dream. It all felt so real to him, he couldn't even tell that it was a dream. Then sadness washed over him as he returned to reality, all of his hopes and dreams feeling crushed.

This sadness was quickly forgotten though as he felt a great amount of nausea come over him. All of his muscles ached and he barely had the strength of move at all. Soon he began coughing uncontrollably, and soon a small red stain formed on the rocky ground as he coughed up more and more blood. With all his might, he opened his eyes just a little and searched the area. To his amazement he found a small cluster of red gems not too far from him.

A new determination grew inside of him and he slowly and shakily picked himself up. He stumbled with every step he took as he moved closer to the gems. When he reached it, he collapsed, exhausted from moving the few feet. He took some time to gather his strength again before reaching out and grasping part of the gem, before breaking it. Within moments he felt all the pain in his body leave him as he broke away more and more of the gem.

When the last bit of the gem was absorbed into Spyro, he just laid where he was still too tired to do anything else, only wishing that he also found a green gem nearby as well. It wasn't long before passed out once more.

When he woke up again, he felt more of his strength back and slowly he stood back up. Despite his pounding head, he did his best to remember everything that happened. Hoping that Cynder might be able to help him remember the past events, he began to look for her. That is when he noticed that Cynder was not next to him, or anywhere near him at all. Instead all he found was a single, damaged, black scale.

His eye's shot wide and he franticly began to search the cave he was in, all the while shouting one thing

"CYNDER!"

**Alright so what did you guys think of this chapter? I cant help but think that I didnt do a good job on the dream that Spyro had, so I have to ask what you guys thought of it. Do know that I accept all forms of criticism so if you want to flame this chapter then go right ahead. Also I would like to thank my co-author for this story XcesarulesX for all of his help. Anyways I really do hope that you guys like this story and I will try to post the next chapter as soon as possible.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Man it has been a while since I last updated this story. Now there are a few IMPORTANT THINGS that I want to go over with you guys before you start reading this story.**

**First off, I am still working on "The Puppeteer" this story is merely a side project that I will be doing alongside it.**

**Secondly, a lot of you thought that this was going to be a one shot considering from the last chapter. I will tell you now that, this will be a full length story.**

**Lastly I will be doing this story completely on my own. As many of you who follow me know I ask for help a lot with my stories, and the last story that I worked completely on my own was my very first story. If I want to improve as a writer, I need to work on my stories alone.**

**Now with all of that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Spyro's heart rate began to quicken as he quickly started to worry greatly for his friend, but he soon calmed himself down, knowing that panicking would do him no good. He then left the cave to explore, hoping that Cynder might be some were nearby.  
Upon exiting the cave he found that the cave entrance was not too far away from a forest. It was just then that his stomach decided to make itself known as a growl came from it, telling Spyro to find something to eat. Despite his want to search for Cynder, he knew that it would be a bad idea to fly around on an empty stomach. Besides he could look for her while he hunted.

He quickly and quietly walked into the forest and began to sure for both prey and Cynder. In the end however Spyro only managed to check off half of the things he was looking for. He found an elk with ease, though he did not catch site of a certain black dragoness.

With his belly satisfied with food, Spyro took to the air hoping to get a better view of the area. The forest wasn't very dense and if he flew low enough he could see through some of the leaves and branches. Spyro spent what left like hours to him as he continued to search, and by the time he was hungry once again, he had nearly given up hope that she was nearby as still he couldn't find a single trace of her.

Much to his own surprise, Spyro found himself once again back inside the cave he found Cynder's scale. He picked it up and stared at it, hoping that by doing so it could somehow tell him were she is at.

'Where are you Cynder?' Spyro thought. 'Where else could she be? I have searched through this enter place head to toe,' Then and idea popped into his head. 'but maybe if I find some more help then I will be able to find her.' With a new determined look in his eyes Spyro stood back up, still holding the scale tightly in his paw, and said out loud to no one in particular "Hold on Cynder just a little longer. Were ever you are, help will be on its way soon,"

And with that said he took to the skies once more, heading back to the dragon city where he hoped everyone made it out alright, thinking that if they did then would surly help him find her. It took him some time but he soon found the golden but damaged walls of Warfang in site. He began to approach the wall, but when he did a familiar speck of light came hurtling towards him.

"Hey Spyro, It's so good to see that my bro alright," said Sparx with delight.

"It's good to see you to Sparx." Spyro said with a chuckle. "Hey can you tell me where the guardians are at? I need to speak to them right away,"

"Yea I can take you to them, is everything alright? I noticed that the big red guy and the queen of mean aren't with you,"  
Spyro took a moment to think about what he was going to say. "In all honesty I don't know Sparx. I will tell you everything though once we find the guardians though,"

Sparx flew there silently for a moment, before shrugging it off. "Alright then, follow me there right over here," Spyro followed his step brother back to Warfang. Spyro noticed a few broken buildings out of the corners of his eyes but he mainly focused on Sparx, not the shattered city below him.

They soon came to a stop at building that reminded Spyro a lot of the Temple in the swamp, only this Temple seemed to be in a worst condition then the other.

"They are usually in here," said Sparx, as he stopped to think for a moment. "I think I might know where they are," he said not fully confident in himself.

"Well lead the way, you know your way around more than I do,"

"Ah ha, for once it is you who needs my help," said Sparx triumphantly.

"Don't say that Sparx, you were a large help over the past few years. I don't think I could have survived through some of it if you weren't there,"

"Yea I know, I just wanted to hear it from you," Sparx said with a sly grin on his face, causing Spyro to chuckle and shake his head, at his brother's antics. "Now enough fooling around, I thought you needed to speak to some one?" Sparx then began to fly off in the direction that he thought the Guardians were. Spyro followed closely behind, and after a bit of walking the two of them found themselves in front of a large doorway, to which Spyro presumed the meeting room was housed behind them. Much like some of the other doors in the Temple located in the swamp, Spyro had to use one of his elemental breaths to unlock it and open it.

The two watched as the door slowly opened, revealing three elderly looking dragons inside. It wasn't long before the three inside noticed the door open and the two behind it.

"It is marvels to see you again," said Volteer excitedly.

"Yes I have to admit that I was worried that you wouldn't make it back," said Terrador equally happy and amazed as Volteer to see Spyro. But then everyone noticed that it was just Sparx and Spyro who stood there.

"Spyro where are Ignitus and Cynder?" Cyril asked concerned.

A sad and gloomy look fell upon Spyro, as he quickly told everyone the tale of what happened to his mentor. There was a short silence in the room as everyone as they mourned there fallen friend. Then Spyro began to retell the events of what happened afterwards and the battle against Malefor. He told them that once he was defeated he saw five purple glowing dragons appear from the core, and both he and Cynder watched as Malefor was dragged down into the core by the five spectral beings. He then finished the tale with how he pulled the world back together, or at least what he remembered of it. Truth be told, most of that moment was foggy to him.

"And when I woke up all I couldn't find Cynder anywhere except for this single scale of hers," Spyro said as he showed everyone the scale he held in his paw. The room fell silent once more as the guardians possessed all of the information in their heads. It wasn't until Terrador spoke up when the silence was broken.

"Well they both will be deeply missed, but we shall hold a ceremony in both of their names and they will go down in history as true heroes of this generation,"

Spyro was taken back by when Terrador said this. "Wait, we don't know what happened to Cynder, she could still be out there for all we know," Spyro said. "We should be sending search parties or something,"

Volteer only shook his head. "I know this must pain you Spyro to hear, but we are in no position to do such a thing. Not only do we have to worry about the remaining forces that are still loyal to Malefor, but we need to rebuild the city so that it's safe for the people to live in," Spyro couldn't believe what he was hearing. The guardians, the group of dragons that he has known for nearly a year now, who have been his mentors through that time, and now they are just giving up on Cynder.

Cyril noticed this and began to say "Look Spyro I know this must be a lot to proses but you have to understand…" but Spyro quickly cut him off.

"NO YOU need to understand, Cynder has been a huge help in this battle, and if it wasn't for her, I don't think that I would have been able to defeat Malefor on my own. She deserves so much after all that she went through when she was his puppet, and now that she if finally free from him, you guys turn your backs on her," Spyro's breath began to quicken and his scales started to turn black in color.

"Uh oh," Sparx said before flying over to Terradors side to hide from Spyro.

"Spyro I ask of you to calm down," said Volteer.

"And another thing," Spyro continued ignoring Volteer's request. "There is no proof the anyone will attack us, but there is proof that Cynder might be alive, and to think that you all have turned your backs on her, makes you no worse than…"  
"ENOUGH!" shouted Terrador, snapping Spyro back to reality. Though anger still flowed in his veins, he managed to regain control over his darker side. "Look Spyro I understand that you only wish for what is best for Cynder, but at the moment there is nothing we can do about it,"

Spyro remained quiet for a short moment before saying "Fine then I will look for her myself," but just before he could leave Volteer spoke up.

"I'm afraid that I must ask of you to stay here,"  
"What, why?" Spyro asked confused and angry

"Because Spyro we need all the help we need to defend this place in case something were to happen. And you are one of the strongest dragons around. To let you fly off would put this city in great danger," stated Terrador.

Anger once again began to accumulate in Spyro but to an even greater degree than before. He wished that he heard them wrong, but in his heart he knew he heard them correctly. He gritted his teeth together at their selfishness, all the while trying to keep his dark half at bay. It was then that he decided that he had enough, so he turned around and left the room.

The three guardians stood still, not moving from where they were sitting, each one silently telling the others to go after him.

With a sigh, Cyril stood up. "I will go find him," as he started to walk away though, Sparx said

"I should come with you,"  
"No Sparx this is something that me and Spyro need to take care of alone," stated Cyril. "I know that he is your brother, but this goes far beyond that. I hope you understand,"

"Besides we need your help with some other matters," Volteer piped in.

"… fine I guess," Sparx said as he watched the door close behind Cyril.

* * *

Cyril had a feeling that he knew were Spyro went. As Ignitus had taught Spyro, the training area is a great place to relieve one's self of anger and other self-doubts. Just as he walked into the training area, like he had thought, he found Spyro destroying one final dummy.

Spyro quickly took noticed of another being in the room. "What do you want?" he said without turning around.

"I just need to show you something," said Cyril.

Part of Spyro told him to ignore the ice dragon behind him, but the other half said that Cyril might have something important to show him. Spyro sighed before turning around. Cyril smiled seeing that he managed to win Spyro over. He then gestured Spyro to follow him. He took Spyro own several hallways, before they began to climb a large spiral stair case. After a while they reached the top.

Spyro looked at the room around him. There were no walls I the room, only four sand stone pillars that held the roof above them. He couldn't however help but let his jaw drop at the site before him. He quickly figured out that he was standing in a large tower that over looked the city from the temple. He didn't really pay much attention to it before, but he now got a better look at how badly the city looked. Nearly half of the building had large holes in them, while the other half was mere rubble. He could only imagine how the once great city used to look like, but the city was too broken for such an image in his mind to form.

"As you can see Spyro Warfang is no longer in any form of good condition. Do you know how many people live here?" Cyril asked, only for Spyro shake his head. "There are currently over two hundred thousand people here, moles, dragons, and a few cheetahs alike. The war has caused so much damage to everything around us, so can you really blame the others for being so cautious? We are still burring bodies for crying out loud," Cyril said in a sadden tone.

"I… I didn't know," Spyro said feeling sorry for the way he acted before.

"I know Spyro and I'm sure you care greatly for Cynder. But right now the others thing that the needs of the many out way the needs of the few,"

"Well what do you think?"

"I think…" Cyril paused thinking of the right words to say. "I think that we could use all the help that we could use at the moment. And like you said Cynder could be out there, and like you she would also be a large help to use in our time of need,"

"So does that mean you will help me?" Spyro asked excitedly.

"No I will not, I am needed here, just like Cynder needs you right now. I am sorry Spyro but you will have to do this alone,"

"Oh…" Then something dawned upon Spyro. "What will the other guardians do when they find out that I have left?"

Cyril pondered over this before saying "They won't do much as like myself, they too are needed here. If anything they will just become mad at you, but over time they will forgive you,"

"Why are you going against them then? I mean they want me to stay and you are saying otherwise,"

"Well you see Spyro… like you I to had a girl I cared for greatly, just like you care a lot for Cynder," Cyril said with a faint smile.

"What happened to her?" asked Spyro, though he had a feeling he knew were this was going but said nothing about it.

"She died, but it was because I didn't chance after her in her time of need. I was a fool back then," Cyril said, his smile disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Spyro said.

"Don't be, it was from her death that I decided that I made sure that no one would ever be left behind ever again, which is why I made sure that I became the guardian of ice. So now I must tell you this Spyro, until you find her body, dead or alive, I don't want to see you back here until, understood?"

A small smile formed on Spyro's face before he nodded and took off into the sky.

'Good luck Spyro,' Cyril thought to himself. Cyril then stated to walk back down the stairs, and quickly rejoined his fellow guardians. "Did you find him?" asked Volteer.

"That I could not, though I had a feeling that no matter what we said, we couldn't change his mind," Cyril said with the slightest hint of a smile upon his face.

**So what did you guys think of this chapter? I will admit that this was more of a filler chapter, but I promise the next chapter will explain what happened to Cynder, don't you worry about that. Now I make no promises as to when that chapter will come out. **

**Speaking of chapters coming out a lot of you have been asking me when the next chapter of "The Puppeteer" will be coming out. I will tell you that it is nearly done, I just need to wait on my co-author to finish a few things, but because of school and other things he has been very busy so if you guys wouldn't mind, could you lay off a little on that?**

**One final thing. From now on any guest that reviews one of my stories, I will put any answers I might have or comments in the bottom author's note of each chapter. I'm sorry to all of my guest fans for not doing this sooner.  
Take care everyone.**


End file.
